An angel in the shape of….

Perhaps like me you’ve reached that awful age where you’re attending funerals far too often. And they are the wrong type of funeral. When I was wee, I mind my Gran as her friends were dying in their 70s and 80s; aunties and uncles too lost their compadres but there were wakes when we could laugh, dance and celebrate lives well lived. Now we are burying bairns, the younger generation.

I’ve seen too many times parents at cremations  and gravesides pleading to swap places with their own offspring. I witnessed one too poignant today. I refuse to regard one more broken man burying his own bairn lost to addiction. These days and losses must end. Now. 

Scotland is not doing well here. We know that drugs, alcohol and suicide deaths are rising. Life expectancy is lowering and infant mortality in some parts of Scotland frightens.

We can’t revive our departed, but we can give the living some hope.

It is clear that poverty is a killer.

Drugs deaths are 15 times more likely in the poorest than the richest parts of Scotland.

For alcohol related deaths at least 7 times.

Suicide at least 3 times.

This tells us what we know – poverty kills. Hopelessness kills.

And those are acts of political will; omissions which comprises political cowardice.

Our government must this very day take radical steps to save the souls of our children. No more pleading with Westminster for ‘safe consumption rooms’ – just set them up and make them happen – Scotland’s parents and families will man the barricades! 

Build the rehab facilities today; create the beds, the comfort, wash and iron the pillowcases and the duvet covers, heat the places for weary heads to lay. We know our addicts are predominantly those hurt by childhood trauma, family breakdown and violence; homelessness and care experience contribute to pain and stigma.

When Scotland assists our most vulnerable we create a better happier world for all of us. Let’s live in the days of the new nation we seek.